This week, I had a computer problem that I want to tell you about, because it illustrates how suddenly and unexpectedly you can lose important data on your computer.
As you know, I have been telling you about my new recipe program, Cook’n from DVO software, and how great it works. I have begun the process of gathering the recipes that I use the most, and putting them in my Cook’n program. I even have a few cookbooks that contain just a handful of recipes that I use, so I have been putting those recipes in Cook’n as well.
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Last week, I received an email that the latest version of Cook’n was ready to be installed. I had been waiting for this version because it will, eventually be able to sync with my iPad which will make things even easier.
I downloaded and installed the new version, and when I went to run it, the program would not work. I was not too troubled, sometimes that happens, I just downloaded and installed it again. Well by the time I gave up, I had installed the program several times, and restarted it a half dozen times.
Here is the problem. Every time you close the Cook’n program, it makes a backup of all your recipe files, and saves the 4 most recent backups in a folder on your computer. Before I knew it, I had saved 4 corrupt backups, and lost the recipe book that I had been working on over the pasts few weeks!
I did not work at my computer over the weekend, but I found myself wondering if I still had all the recipes that I had put in the program, some, I had thrown away the paper copy after putting them in the computer!
Monday morning, I searched my whole computer looking for some place where those recipes might have been stored, but could not find them anywhere. Then, I remembered my automatic backup software, Mozy. I remembered reading somewhere that they save older copies of your files for 30 days in case you need to go back to an older version. With this in mind, I logged into my Mozy account and sure enough, they still had my backups from last week. I downloaded the files and was thrilled to find that all my hard work was restored!
I also heard back from the folks at DVO software that they are aware of this error in Cook’n and their development team is working on solving this right now. For now, I am content to have all my recipes back on the old version of Cook’n.
Elizabeth
It’s Your Turn: What do you think?
…. Share your experience in the comments box below.
Dear Computer Lady,
You have mentioned Carbonite and Mozy both in the past. Is one better than the other? I want to start my backups with one of these but I’m not sure which is the best? I’m wondering if others are asking the same question. Thanks for all of your help, Cindy in Iowa.
Hi Cindym,
I currently use Mozy on my desktop computer, and Carbonite on my workbench (kind of serves as my server) computer. Both seem to work equally well. They are automatic, allow you to specify what files you want to backup, and allow you to go and retrieve individual files.
Elizabeth
Kind of irresponsible for a software company to release an upgrade with that major of a bug in it. You were able to remedy the situation because of your knowledge. But what if it had been a newbie?
Bob
Unfortunately, there is no way for a company to test their software on every possible computer configuration before release. I installed the upgrade on another computer of mine, and it worked fine.
I am going to wait and grade them on how fast they put out the fix in the two weeks before Christmas.
Elizabeth
My recently received Cook’n (Version10) is not operating properly. The main problem is that I have to open it several times before it actually opens.
Do you have any suggestions as to what I should do?
jostratton64@shelbybb.net (Kentucky)
Hi Elizabeth,
I am the CEO of DVO Enterprises and the creator of Cook’n. There is not a major bug in Cook’n…or any bug that would cause the problem that you described. If there was, we would be completely and absolutely overwhelmed by the thousands and thousands of people who purchased Cook’n 10 since its release 2 months ago. Can you imagine the outcry!
Without knowing more details, it’s difficult to say why you had this problem. The reason it happened again and again even after re-installing is because it sounds like the problem was with your data files and re-installing does not over-write your recipe data.
Although I am the President of the company…and, as a result, very busy, I would be very happy to set aside time to help you and to find out more about the specific problem you had.
If you would like my assistance, please send an e-mail to dan@dvo.com and I will help you.
Best wishes!
Dan